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This month we are answering a mythical
question some of you have asked us: Should you use a decanter
or not?
Very simply, Decanters
are used for 2 reasons:
1) Some red wines tend to develop a deposit
or sediment at the bottom of the bottle over time.
You will therefore use a decanter to retain this solid
deposit into the bottle and get the liquid only into
the decanter ready to be served into glasses. You will at the
same time avoid a strange surprise to your guests who might
otherwise eat the sediment.... Not good!
2) Pouring the
wine into the decanter some time before serving the wine will
put the wine in contact with oxygen. This will help
releasing the aromas of the wine which might take some
time in concentrated wines to do. And tannins
in red wines will also soften when in contact
with oxygen for a few minutes or hours. So the more concentrated
in flavours and tannic the wine is, the more it will benefit
from spending some time into the decanter before being drunk.
Please note that the decanter is one way to
put the wine in contact with oxygen, but you can also use your
glass
with a similar effect. Opening the bottle an hour before serving
the wine will not really help as the contact with oxygen from
the bottleneck will be too small.
So
the use of a decanter really applies to the following wines:
-
Young red wines with potential to age a little or a
lot, especially tannic such as the
ones made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Mourvedre, Tannat.....
Have the wine rest for half an hour to 2 hours or more depending
on how good the potential to age the wine has got.
-
Older tannic red wines will also benefit from
some contact with oxygen and a decanter BUT consider this: aromas
in Old quality wines will tend to become more
and more fragile over time. Those aromas could be wiped
out by the huge change of environment, from 15 or even 30 years
spent in the bottle to an oxygen rich environment in the decanter
especially if the wine is near the optimum maturation. So the
rule is to use a decanter with a wine having some time
to live before reaching the optimum aging.
A concentrated wine having some aging potential could
benefit from spending a few hours in the decanter.
Avoid
using a decanter with the following:
-
Red wines made from Pinot Noir: they have got
fragile aromas and rather medium to low tannin. Therefore using
a decanter with Pinot Noir wines might suppress most of the
nice aromas.
-
Oldest red wines, especially wines near or
at their peak! And more so with wines made from Pinot Noir!
-
White wines: they will rarely have a deposit,
have nearly no tannins, and their aromas will have enough breathing
time in your glass to release themselves instead of using a
decanter.
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